News From the Balls: the CD Release Show

Were you There?: October 2, a crowded Friday night in the East Village, the early buzz of autumn in the air -- one of the first solid nights cold enough to drag the leathers out of the closet and dispense with summer's gauze. We're in an empty Luna Lounge, nursing a few pre-event Brooklyn Lagers (the Pennant Pale Ale tap was down). Lead singer Sean Smith is flitting in and out, shuffling drink chips and wondering if they get cheaper if he buys them in bulk. Lots of friends coming down, and it's been a lot of years building toward this first full-length album, and he's planning to put a lot of beers into a lot of hands. Guitarist Jimmy Lee is nursing a cold and a beverage, chatting with his brother Michael who came down from the fringes of New England for the show, tuning his Les Paul at the bar -- new strings newly strung, and they tend to wander.

Pawnshop is back.

Openers Kotten are doing a jackhammer soundcheck in the back music room and we're at that part of the party when you wonder where everyone is and why they're not here already. There's no reason for them to be here yet, but we're here, and it would be a welcome distraction from us all sitting around saying "Wow, we made it" in a thousand different ways.

Jump Cut: The room is full, and people are spilling out into the bar; the new arrivals can't get in past the bottleneck by the door. The Home Office Records guys are darting around with cameras, and Big Bill is manhandling the huge video camera over the heads of the crowd. Drummer Yves Gerard and bassist Keith Golden are on stage, checked and ready to go; Jimmy is tuned, and Sean ambles up to the mike, in a slim slick and flawless black suit jacket and silks beneath. It all falls into place with a sudden interlocking flash. A hand on the mike; a rethought guitar intro that none of the audience has heard until now; a pause, a whirl, and "Wild Rose" erupts into the room with a raw precision that is new, assured and solidly in the groove. Pawnshop is back like never before.

For the next forty-five minutes it's a triumphal march into conquered land as the band lays down, picks up and works through most of the new Three Brass Balls CD, redefining songs that some of us have lived with for years. The bar is a blur of business and the stage almost glows with energy. The one cover, of Marilyn Manson's "Dope Show" (Pawnshop has to be one of the first bands in America to go there!), is so new and flawless that half of the crowd doesn't know why the rest of 'em are going nuts. It's all there, and when the show is over the capacity house lingers, flush with excitement and joy.

The Indie Celebrity Index: Spotted in the crowd were Renée Annabel Wilson (in cast and crutches) and Charlie Carroll of Home Office Records recording artists RAW Kinder; Jon Fried and Kurt Wrobel of Home Office Records recording artists The Cucumbers; periodic Pawnshopper Pedro Moreno; Steve Fontaine, Erika Wilson and Mark Nilsen of bluecowboys; lead singer Yahz of Red Betty; National Records recording artist Ivy Markaity; long-time New York music maker Bill Popp of Bill Popp and the Tapes, showing off his weekend mention (with The Cucumbers) in the New York Daily News; lead singer and sensitive scribbler Kevin Drayne of The Bitter Poet & the Sound of Angst; Brett Hammond, Martin Ewens and Derek Finan of Wild Pitch Records recording artists Bigmouth; Radical Records mover and shaker Eric Rosen; John Brown III, manager of HO favorite Heather Eatman; oft-punk Brent Colyer and entourage; Ultrafine's ex-Play Train drummer Eric Slovin; early, Downtown's Deni Bonet; and late, HO fellow traveler and keyboard king Rob Schwimmer. A wonderful time was had by all.